Twitter is an inexhaustibly entertaining forum for such a debate. No matter how intellectually sound your views are, someone will say you’re a crackpot. Lots of people said Thomas, the Bruins goalie, owes fealty to the White House regardless of who’s in office. Those people are bananas. Do they really think it’s OK to insist that a fellow citizen so revere a governmental institution that he must attend if beckoned? If you want to respect the government that much, go right ahead. Don’t tell anybody else to. It’s so much easier to, oh, you know, let the man live his life as he sees fit.

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We complain ad nauseum that athletes are boring and then a guy does something interesting and we roast him. You’d think fans in Boston, of all places, would understand sticking it to the man because of that whole revolution thing. But whatever.

Thomas’ reasons for not going are irrelevant. Maybe he believes the government controls hockey pucks via tin foil in Don Cherry’s head. Read his explanation on Facebook if you want; it’s boilerplate get-off-my-lawn Tea Party goofiness that is every bit his right to believe and act upon.

Remember he’s a hockey player. Insert accountant or teacher or garbageman, it doesn’t matter. Let a man be a political kook if he wants to! Speaking of kooks, Thomas’ Facebook statement allowed comments, and one of them questioned why Thomas would “belittle the Stanley Cup.”

Thomas can diss the president, mock Congress, burn the Constitution, peek under a Supreme Court justice’s robe, but if he belittles the Stanley Cup, that’s going too far.

Thomas is not the first athlete to find better things to do than listen to the president tell corny jokes that somebody else wrote. A few NASCAR drivers didn’t go last year, but maybe that was because the entrance requires a right-hand turn and all they’ve ever made are lefts. Former Red Sox G.M. Theo Epstein reportedly didn’t show up after Boston won the World Series—twice. Dan Hampton made a stink about not going to a celebration of the 1985 Chicago Bears.

All of these guys were criticized to some extent. But Thomas seems to be facing another level of Mother Hen-ness. Critics said Thomas owed it to his teammates to show up because otherwise it would be a distraction. That’s an argument whose only weak spot is it is completely unsupported by facts. This is only an issue when the media asks about it; in a million years, his teammates would not be in a huff because he ditched President Obama. And it’s not like Zdeno Chara will whiff on a half dozen one-timers because he just can’t stop thinking about how rude and disrespectful Thomas is.

Regardless, this story will be forgotten in about 14 more min—what were we talking about again?

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A sample of the day-after reaction to Thomas' decision

Vancouver goalie—and American—Cory Schneider: "Every person is entitled to their rights, that’s the point of the constitution. You can have free speech, free religion, politics and all that stuff. So it’s absolutely Tim’s right. His beliefs are his own and that’s fine. It’s just the timing is a little odd. If your entire team is going, it’s about the team to kind of put your own agenda aside and maybe just show up in support.

“Obviously he believes strongly in his political views. But, as an American, I think we all have a little bit of respect for the position of the president. Whether you like the guy or not, he’s the president of the United States. Tim has made a great living and a great career in the United States and I’m sure he’s benefitted from tax-paying dollars and every other right that as an American citizen we all enjoy. It’s a little bit of a slight to sort of forget all that and choose to do this.”

Teammate Andrew Ference: “It’s something that was a very rare opportunity. All of us made our own individual decision to go because it’s a good thing. I think as everybody has already said it’s his decision. He believes strongly in things, and, well, so be it. It’s not for us to really delve into because it’s his business.

“I obviously have a different viewpoint. I think this a wonderful country. (The government) has done so much for us. I think that’s why we were so thrilled to go because we had a different viewpoint. Everybody has a different point of view and that’s this country as well, right?"

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli: “I’m not going to regulate free speech. Tim is his own person. He’s been that way for the five or six years that I’ve known him. That hasn’t changed and it won’t change. We won a Stanley Cup and we’re doing well this year."